Week 2 Winner - Holidays and Virtue

I hope all of you had a good weekend - mine was for the most part uneventful, mostly because I worked on some stuff around the house since it was too hot and humid to be enjoyable outside.  I did get to spend Sunday working on my Cozy Squares of Memory blanket, which was a good thing because it had been a while.  I finally decided to move along on it, after something that I felt had messed it up.  But it is supposed to be a patchwork blanket, right, so I decided it didn't need to be 100% perfect (spoiler alert - it already wasn't ...).  Anyway, it felt good to work on it again.

But what I am really here to tell you today is that we have a winner for the second week giveaway for Christmas in July 2020:

Karen!!!!!

Here is what she had to say about people in her family or that she actually knew who had a name related to any holiday:

My grandmother had a friend whose two grandchildren (twins) were Holly and Noel.  I thought them wonderful names!  Still think they're pretty good.  My husband's family has a tradition of virtue names; his mother, God bless her, was named Prudence.

This answer had something of everything - good holiday names, twins, and some "virtue names" thrown in!  I think those twins were lucky, because Holly and Noel are actual lovely names, so not made up ones that the kids have to spend their lifetimes spelling or explaining.  And Prudence is one of those names that makes me think of someone dressed as a Pilgrim, but it is also a name that I think is kinda pretty.   I must admit that I also find "Pru" to be a cute nickname.   So congratulations Karen!  Please send an e-mail to:  thekittyknitterATverizonDOTnet with your name address, zip, etc. and I will get the package ready to mail. 

The reason I thought up this question was because it was right after the Fourth of July, and every year at that time, I remember this one person's name that frankly I don't know if I'll ever get over.  In one of the jobs I had, we had transcripts from an affiliated college that had closed.  So when someone needed one, they called us.  This guy called for his transcript once, and I said, "Please give me the name your transcript would be under - so for instance, if you use a nickname, but the transcript is under your proper name, give me that."

His response was "My name is E Pluribus Allen; the letter E with no period after, then P-l-u-r-i-b-u-s then A-l-l-e-n."  Now for those of you who do not live in the U.S., or maybe just don't pay attention, the motto of the U.S. is "e pluribus unum," or "out of many, one."  Well, I guess some patriotic (?) parents thought it would be a most excellent name for their child.  Personally, I so wanted to know what this guy was called on a daily basis - "E" or "EP" or maybe just "Chip" - who knows?  But it's truly one of the most - shall we say - Unique names I've ever heard.  And as a co-worker said, "Just remember: Out of many, Allen."  Which I have to admit makes me laugh every single time I think of it.

It *is* memorable, you've got to admit.